Jiraiya's Obsession!

PS: It's the first day of the Lunar New Year! Happy New Year! Xiao Ye wishes all the readers a prosperous Year of the Ox, good fortune in everything, and all their wishes come true! I hope you'll continue supporting Xiao Ye in the new year with more official subscriptions, tips, and votes. I'll be truly grateful! My thanks to you all!

So, we share a common goal?

Jiraiya murmured the words quietly to himself.

It was a topic he hadn't brought up.

Jiraiya seemed to still be weighing his words.

But Naruto got straight to the point, bringing up his departure from the village—or rather, his defection. It wasn't something they needed to dance around. It was a subject Naruto and Jiraiya had to address. Naruto deeply respected Jiraiya, who was also one of the few people in the vast village of Konoha whom he liked. Of course, that was based on his attitude from his previous life. Even after coming to this world, Naruto still admired Jiraiya's character. He was a selfless man, a shinobi who truly put the village first and worked toward genuine peace. Jiraiya had certainly had his own difficulties in the past, and the same was true of people like Kakashi.

To be fair, everyone had the right to make their own choices.

Naruto wasn't saying that he wanted to blame any one person for his miserable childhood.

But.

If you had your own choices to make,

and your own sense of justice to defend,

then Naruto had the freedom and the right to choose his own path and defend his own justice, too!

He brought up the topic so directly because he didn't want to beat around the bush anymore. It was best for the situation to speak openly about many things—including the